Dedicated to all the mothers throughout the land 
who have known the great
sorrow of an "Empty Cradle."
"Put Away the Empty Cradle" (1874)
SONG
Words and Music by
T. O. Crawford.
Arranged  by 
W. Carmichael.

San Francisco: Sherman & Hyde, 139 Kearny St.
[Source: 1874-104362]

1. Put away the empty cradle;
It was once our darling’s bed, 
Never more we the dear one shall fondle;
Browney’d Bessie, our baby, is dead.
The home is so lonely without her;
And hush’d is its joy and its mirth.
She has enter’d the sadless hereafter, 
And the angels rejoice at her birth.

CHORUS [sung after each VERSE]
Put away the empty cradle.
It was once our darling’s bed.
Never more we the dear one shall fondle, 
Browney’d Bessie, our baby is dead.

2. Put awy the empty cradle, 
For its pressence causes us pain, 
And our darling one’s sweet baby features, 
Fancy brings to our presence again.
All of her that on earth now is left us, 
Of her we all priz’d passing worth, 
Is the sweetly sad thought of our Bessie, 
In the churchyard a small mound of earth.